First Offense by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

From the Publisher

In First Offence, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg draws on her personal experience as a California probation officer to create a remarkable heroine in Ann Carlisle, who suddenly finds herself the target of someone who wishes to harm not only her but also her teenage son. As a probation officer, Ann knows what it means to walk a treacherously thin line between dangerous criminals who have scores to settle - and the system that seeks to punish them. As a wife, she holds closely guarded secrets about her life with her police officer husband, who inexplicably vanished four years ago. And as a woman who has been sexually reawakened by a handsome, hard-driving district attorney after being alone too long, she is haunted by the specter of a mate who may suddenly reappear...and terrified of an unknown enemy who seems to know her every move and thought. The danger is clear to Ann from the moment a bullet hits her while she is leaving work one day. Ironically, the man who comes to her and saves her life is one of the first offenders she is supervising - convicted drug dealer Jimmy Sawyer. What was this smooth-talking, slick-moving, almost too good-looking young man doing at the scene of the shooting? No one is able to help Ann find answers, not her dynamic, career-obsessed lover, or the cops who were buddies of her missing husband and who look on her as prone to shock and fantasy - especially when the evidence of an unspeakable crime she finds in Jimmy Sawyer's house disappears before she can prove it existed. Meanwhile, she is investigating a man accused of a series of brutal rapes, never suspecting his case will have a bearing on her own growing peril.

Publishers Weekly

America's most popular champion of vigilantism ( Mitigating Circumstances ) returns with another button-pushing melodrama showing how a spunky heroine who takes the law into her own hands can bring down any villain. Rosenberg's new angel of vengeance is California probation officer Ann Carlisle, beautiful blonde and single mom. Ann doesn't kill for justice, as one previous Rosenberg heroine did; she merely illegally breaks-and-enters in order to get her man. But the author makes up for the relatively demure action by linking it to a mug book's worth of the law's failures, including a wrongly convicted felon, a sadistic cop and an overly ambitious DA. The busy plot buzzes with suspense and intrigue: Was it Ann's new drug-dealing probationer who shot her in the shoulder? Is it he who breaks into her house and molests her? Why is her prosecutor-paramour so eager to see an accused rapist behind bars? And has Ann's cop-husband, missing for four years, returned from the grave to make cryptic phone calls? Just when readers will have figured all the angles, savvy Rosenberg unveils the villain and flips the plot into an exciting manhunt, with Ann as bait. Offering plenty of sex and violence--and violent sex--plus a vigorous plucking of heartstrings, Rosenberg notches up another crowd-pleasing page-turner. Paperback rights to Signet; Literary Guild main selection; audio to Penguin HighBridge; author tour. (Aug.)

Library Journal

Action dominates Rosenberg's third novel: Within a very few pages, for instance, probation officer Ann Carlisle affronts a sexist judge, engages in steamy sex in a county-building stairwell, and is shot. Deeply involved with impulsive, controlling Assistant District Attorney Glen Hopkins, Ann also juggles her career and motherhood. Mother and young son are grieving over the disappearance of Ann's police officer husband, a wound time seems unable to heal. Though Ann and David have good support, primarily from Det. Sgt. Tom Reed, surrogate father and grandfather, the Carlisles must ultimately confront their personal problems on their own even as a killer pursues Ann, whose escalating professional difficulties raise serious questions about the judicial system. Unfortunately, the intense reader identification these factors should generate never surfaces. Despite the fast pace and the detailed background, Ann Carlisle remains a somewhat interesting but not truly engaging protagonist. For popular mystery collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/94.]-Jane S. Bakerman, Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute

BookList

Rosenberg is on a roll. Her new thriller is even better than her two 1993 novels, "Mitigating Circumstances" and "Interest of Justice". It's got all the right ingredients to ensure commercial success: a heroine with moxie, some hot sex scenes, fast-paced action, plenty of suspense, "and" a happy ending. Probation officer Ann Carlisle's husband, a highway patrolman, disappeared mysteriously four years ago, and it's been tough for Ann and her 12-year-old son to put their lives back together. A new love interest plus a heavy caseload at work are just beginning to help heal Ann's wounds when she becomes involved in a narcotics trial that will unravel her life all over again. Jimmy Sawyer, a spoiled rich kid, is convicted of selling drugs, and Ann is assigned to serve as his probation officer. But the minute Sawyer is out on bail, Ann is shot and nearly raped, her house is burglarized, her son is threatened, and she begins receiving mysterious phone calls from a man who sounds exactly like her supposedly dead husband. Rosenberg spins a "can't-put-it-down" story that's sure to generate plenty of requests. A main selection of the Literary Guild.

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